The Wardly Skull
This hall is now the home of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford.
In this hall there is a human skull situated in a small aperture at the top of the staircase of Blessed Ambrose Barlow, who was a priest during the reign of William III. He was hung, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on September 10th 1641, and his head was taken to a relative, living at Wardley Hall to be preserved as a relic of his martyrdom.
This screaming skull belongs to Wardly Hall, located a few miles outside Manchester, England. The skull, which dates from the reign of Edward VI, is associated with both an improbable legend and a likely tale.
The legend involves Roger Downes, a dissolute member of the family who owned the house at the time of the English Civil War. One day while in London drinking and carousing, Downes vowed that he would kill the first man he would meet. A poor, hapless tailor chanced by and Downes thrust his sword through him. Downes was arrested and tried for murder, but his influence at court enabled him to go free.
Comeuppance was soon at hand, however. Shortly thereafter Downes was crossing London Bridge in a drunken and rowdy state. He attacked a watchman with his rapier. The watchman fought back and was strong enough to successfully sever Downes' head from his body with one blow of his weapon.
The watchman and his friends sent the head to Wardley Hall. Later, the skull was placed in an aperture in the wall above the house's main staircase, but not before several unsuccessful efforts allegedly were made to get rid of it by burning or drowning. Subsequent efforts to move the skull met with violent responses such as destructive storms.
But such a colorful story was discounted because the last Downes of Wardley, oddly enough named Roger and also a rake, was buried in the family vault with his head intact, the skull more likely to be that of Dom Edward Ambrose Barlow, identified in the History of Wardley Hall, Lancashire by H. V. Hart - Davis and S. Holme.
It seems before the English Civil War and it's religious persecutions against Catholics, Francis Downes owned Wardley Hall. He and his wife were devout Catholics and they dangerously allowed Mass to be celebrated in the Hall's chapel. Barlow, a Benedictine monk who has successfully eluded authorities for 24 years, met his fate on Easter Sunday 1641 while officiating at neighbouring Morleys Hall.
Barlow was seized, arrested, tried and condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered. His head was impaled either at a Manchester church or Lanchester castle. Downes secretly removed it and took it back to Wardley, where he hid it so well that all trace of it was lost until the mid-18th century.
At that time, Wardley was owned by Matthew Moreton, who found the skull in a box that had accidentally fallen out of a ruined wall. A servant later thought it was the skull of an animal and threw it into the moat. That night, a terrible storm broke out, and Moreton theorized that it was the skull screaming for it's place to be restored in the house. Moreton drained the moat and recovered the skull.
http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/ghoststories/HAUNTEDSKULLS/
